


Interview #1

by purglepurglepurgle



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Satire, dark humour, political fiction, television interview
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:55:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27747082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purglepurglepurgle/pseuds/purglepurglepurgle
Summary: A Shinra News Network interview. Set pre-OG. Satire.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	Interview #1

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to write a story about Aeris attempting to take excellent care of a gift out of spite, but found this in my fanfic folder instead. Not the darkest thing I've written, but still dark. I have a lot of scraps on this theme lying around...

_"… They told us he'd be happier. And he took the injections, and it made him-- he grew-- there was bones in his shoulder, where there wasn't any bones before, and he said, he just, he said he didn't feel like him any more. He felt like something else. They said it was going to make him happy, and he took his own life, John, he took his own life."_

_"I can't imagine how that must feel."_

_"He was only nineteen, and he, he was everything. My baby boy. And we thought it was a good thing, and he was so, we thought he was getting back on track, it was a new start, and I-- I cheered him on, I thought it was the right thing, because everyone said it was the right thing, they said it was cruel to stop him, and I never thought-- I never thought everyone would **lie** "_

_"Do you need a moment?"_

_"-- and now, and now, he's gone, and I'll never forgive myself, never as long as I live, and all that's keeping me going is that I have to keep saying it, I have to let other mums know that my son is dead and Shinra did it."_

_"You believe that?"_

_"Yes. Shinra with their experiments. They say it's safe, and they're lying. There's lots of them, lots of kids, and everyone's someone's kid, and they're using them. And it's evil, John. It's evil."_

_"Thank you for speaking to us."_

* * *

"So, that's the interview with Sally White, and it's caused quite a stir! With us today is Owain Jonas, top columnist in the Midgardian-- lovely to have you, Owain."

"Thanks."

"So, we've just seen Sally's interview-- very emotional experience, I think we can all agree on that. So, Owain, my question is, what should we make of all this? It's all a bit worrying, isn't it?"

"Well, quite clearly, John, this woman isn't herself a bigot, she's going through a very painful time, so I just want to make that clear before we start. I'm not attacking her and I'm not suggesting any of my followers attack her. She's not a bigot; she's confused and in pain; what she _is_ doing is advancing a bigoted agenda. Because the language she's using depicts Ex-SOLDIERS as monsters-- the mentions of claws, fur, nails-- it dehumanises them, John. We know that many are homeless after they finish their service, and that's because of this ill-informed attitude that demonises them, that shuts them out of public life. The best thing we can do, to protect men like Sally's son, is normalise jenova injections. She's in a lot of pain, but that doesn't mean we should buy into damaging conspiracy theories-- damaging conspiracy theories that harm real marginalised populations. Because, although she's in pain, her words do violence-- literal violence-- and we mustn't forget that. Actually, if I'm being perfectly honest, I think it was irresponsible to interview her. She's a woman at the most vulnerable time in her life, and she's being used."

"And who, in your opinion, is using her?"

"Oh, the usual suspects. The Corel coal lobby; Godo is probably trying to destabilise things in Midgar; you've got the various anti-science cranks, cosmonuts, those sorts-- hysterical people who panic at anything new. In every age, there are people who want to destroy what they don't understand. It's sad, but it's true. And there are factions that have been campaigning against mako power for decades, and they love to exploit people's trauma like this. I'm not going to give them more exposure by naming them, but you know the hate group I'm talking about. You have to realise, John, this is part of a sophisticated, organised campaign, that preys on people's fears-- so we know a lot of mothers are feeling worried right now-- and that makes sense, they're worried about their kids, as any mother would worry, and there's a lot of scaremongering in the press-- and a busy mother isn't going to have time to read the vast body of academic literature that would dispel her fears. We have to be careful not to target individuals in this, even if it can be frustrating. These women mean well, John, they're just a little more vulnerable than you or I; I think it's fair to say it's a generational difference; we've been raised to be more cynical and skeptical of things we read, whereas these women are more likely to take things at face-value. They expect good-faith. They're just not equipped for these kinds of disinformation campaigns."

"You think it is a campaign, then? You don't think there's any possibility she might be telling the truth?"

"I think she's telling _her_ truth. I think it's very important to recognise that. She's not being deceptive in any way. What we need to get away from is this idea that one person's truth can be _everyone_ 's truth. I think that's very important. I think she's sincere. I also think she's very, very wrong. Catastrophically wrong, even. The fact is, we don't know her son's-- Sammy's-- story. She only knows what she thinks she knows-- and let's face it, every child keeps secrets from their parents. It could even be-- I hesitate to say this, but I think it's more important for the wider cause-- well, I think there's a chance, her son saw her reaction to the effects of jenova, and if that reaction was less than positive, if she was predisposed to imagine things, because of the media climate, because of things she’d read online, then without meaning to, she might have distressed him quite a lot. There are no villains in this, John. It's a tragic story. But I think we need to be careful not to leap onto conspiracy theories that run the risk of demonising people. I was speaking to someone at a Shinra lab this morning, a young woman, a new graduate, first in her family, studied incredibly hard to get what should be her dream job, her family are so proud-- but she can't enjoy any of it because she's so worried about the backlash. The press, the hatemail, it's just been relentless, John, relentless. She's afraid to go to work. It's just not on. These are scientists who work tirelessly to help people; they're just trying to do their jobs, to save lives. So I think people really need to consider the cultural context before they add more fuel to the fire."

"That's a good point, about adding fuel. We have certainly seen quite the stir over the last couple of days! Many articles, many. And you think this could be harmful?"

"Yes, I mean, it _is_ harmful. I received a private message, just this morning, a young woman due to start her first course of jenova injections, absolutely scared out of her wits-- she gave me permission to share this-- because, you see, John, she's staked her whole life on joining SOLDIER, on becoming a hero, on making a fresh start. And now she's she's panicking, she's worried Shinra might cancel it, and she won't get the opportunity; she doesn't know what else she'll do, she's considering suicide-- that's the reality of this, John, kids are considering suicide-- her life has been plunged into _chaos_ , and it's because of easily-disproven misinformation! You know, the world's still turning, the sky's still clear-- nothing's changed since yesterday. The procedures are as safe as they always were. So these women opposing it, they're ignorant, they're science-deniers, they're the same crowd that oppose vaccines because they think you can heal life-threatening diseases with essential oils and sea-salt and asking to speak to the manager, and I admit, if one were in front of me right now, I _might_ be tempted to shout and throw food-- but it's not their fault. If anything, it points to failures in our education system. But at the same time, this hysterical coverage is doing a lot of damage, and moving things backwards, and I think we need to acknowledge that, and we need to combat it. To stop the spread of hate. Because it's just cruel."

"Thank you, Owain. A very thoughtful analysis. So, something slightly different now: what if we told you that the world's most dedicated wine-taster... was a chocobo? Yes, that's right; we're joined by Boppit the birdie, and his human colleague, Marvin, who's going to talk a little bit about their work at the Gongaga Vineyard. So, Marvin, an avian sommelier? What's all this about?"

**Author's Note:**

> I described this as dark, but I think really the first video interview would never happen on a mainstream channel, and if by some chance it did get an airing on a smaller one, it would be instantly removed and the station would apologise. So perhaps this is actually an optimistic AU.


End file.
